Activity Duration in MMOs (was: [MUD-Dev2] [DESIGN] Spore and MMOs)

[Damion Schubert]

On 9/14/07, Michael Hartman <mlist at thresholdrpg.com> wrote:
>
> Aurel Mihai wrote:
> > On 9/4/07, Damion Schubert <dschubert at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>Saying
> >>"what if there was a monster that took FORTY of us to take down?"
> >>is a uniquely evocative statement.  It is, as you state, an earnest
> >>desire to be part of something big.  It's big, and it's
> visceral.  Having
> >>your small 5-man squad win a battle which adds a few points to some
> >>global scoreboard is interesting, in a fantasy football sort of way, but
> >>what players want from their massively multiplayer games are actions
> >>which are viscerally... well... massively multiplayer.
> >
> > What's the motivation behind being part of something big? IMO it's the
> > desire to be big oneself. A player that takes part in a 5 hour, 40
> > player raid can later say "I was there!"
>
> The sad problem with WoW is that it is more accurate to say:
>
> "What if there were so many trash mobs, it took FORTY of us to press the
> 1 button for 5 hours and clean it all up! Oh yeah, then I think we
> fought a boss in there somewhere between the hours of trash killing. Oh,
> and we have to do the exact same thing every week for 3 months so
> everyone in the group gets the item they need."
>
> That is not epic, visceral, evocative, or anything of that nature. It is
> just boring and repetitive.
>

I didn't necessarily say that raids were evocative.  Just that the IDEA of
raids are evocative.  And they are, extremely so.  Players want games
that take advantage of what massively multiplayer means.  Designers are
still struggling to do so, usually because end game content is the first
to get cut when deadlines get tight.

As for your commentary on raids: while its true that most WoW/EQ
fanbois tend to be overly exuberant on how cool or important raiding is,
it is equally true that far too many designers dismiss raiding is inherently
lame without examining what's actually cool, successful, interesting
or compelling about the experience.


--d